Happiness marathons for employees

One of the formats that could be used by companies that implement a human-centered culture is the involvement and training of employees through special marathons. This format came to business from social networks and become popular.

I would like to share a case study and our ideas for holding such marathons for employees.?At the beginning of 2022, we held a five-week "Happiness Marathon" for one of our clients.

The results were great: several hundred employees (total company size - about 2,000 people) joined the webinars, and the viewability of the marathon posts in the Telegram- channel was approaching 90% of all its subscribers. The goal of the marathon was to educate employees and give them understanding about well-being concept, its different aspects and to give real practical tools for regular use.

I would like to point out that in the last 1.5 years, resilience marathons have become more popular because stress levels have seriously increased.?Like happiness marathons, they are based on the discoveries of the science of happiness - positive psychology. It is the scientific approach that makes such formats not just fun, but learning and forming new habits. Especially becauuse happiness is a skill, which you can train.

What is happiness?

"Happiness" in psychology has two definitions. First, happiness is an umbrella term for several theories of well-being that encompass personal experiences, positive beliefs about oneself and the world, or life satisfaction. Second, happiness is one of the emotions.

When we talk about happiness in the context of work and life, we will be talking specifically about the first definition. That is, about the inner steady state of satisfaction and well-being.

Happiness consists of two parts: hedonic and eudaemonic happiness. Hedonistic happiness consists of the possibility of receiving positive emotions and pleasure from life and evaluation of one's satisfaction with what is happening. And eudemonistic happiness is the result of the meaning in life.

?Goals of doing happiness or sustainability marathons

If you are doing a well-being marathon, the goal may be to help and support your employees. One of the benefits of happiness, or rather the ability to manage your well-being, is the skill of "resilience".

The marathon can be primarily aimed at relieving both acute current stress and at the same time learning useful skills to become happier in the future.

What is a marathon?

All marathons have common elements:

?? A content plan with the publication of useful information on the topic. It is better to publish content in different formats: photo, video, and audio.

?? Mandatory "live broadcasts" or live webinars: once a week the possibility of interactive communication in the format of a webinar with useful content and answers to questions, or just a breakdown of questions and answers to them.

?? Questions from participants and answers from experts.

?? Individual and group assignments and exercises to learn useful skills.

??Participants' communication: the opportunity to exchange opinions and ideas.

?? Marathon duration: from 2 to 6 weeks.

?? Activity: on a daily or weekly basis (from 1 to 2-3 activities per week).

?Three types of marathons

?Closed by appointment, with interaction and feedback. You make announcements and people who want to participate in the marathon sign up. Small (up to 25 people) groups are formed from them. This group is active during the whole marathon period, participants communicate in a separate chat room. In addition to receiving feedback and answers from the marathon host, performing tasks (often individually), and discussing them, participants can communicate with each other and share their own insights. This format is quite labor-intensive, but it is effective and allows holding attention and engaging people. It has another useful "side" effect: intra-corporate networking of employees.

?Closed by appointment with interactivity, but without feedback. In this case, only those employees for whom it is relevant to take part in the marathon and have access to the content. The others can just read the news about what is happening at the marathon. In this case, participants can be organized into one large group.?Participants can communicate with each other, and ask questions. In this option, there is no individual work with each participant: sorting out tasks, etc.

? Open information marathons. Assume the possibility for anyone to participate at any time. They give access to content and the opportunity to ask questions. There is no separate communication, nor is there a separate subgroup, but there may be greater reach (at least with one of the messages).

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Choose a format based on your goals and understanding of your audience, the current situation, and, of course, optimal costs. After all, personalized approach and maintenance require much more resources than just creating and distributing content.

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Marathon content

The content of a marathon depends on the company's business profile, the characteristics of its target audience, and the general situation in the company.

In a situation of complex changes and unpredictability in the BANI world, a resilence marathon can include, for example, the following blocks:

??What are stress and stress reduction work practices

??Habits of thinking that increase stress and how to change them

?? Well-being and its components. The 5 dimensions of Well-being

?? Practices to support well-being and a focus on positive thinking as a way to support mental health and life resilience

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If you are running a happiness marathon, the content may include blocks such as:

??What is happiness and how to manage it

??Happiness practices

??Life balance and how to manage it

??Traps that get in the way of happiness

?? Happiness in work

These are examples of blocks. Each marathon must be formed taking into account the tasks, as well as the specifics of the target audience and company culture. The arsenal of the science of happiness is full of developments, from mindset changes to simple exercises that increase well-being.

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Happiness isn't just an emotion, it's a skill that can be taught to employees. And they, in turn, will become more productive in their work and bring results to the business.

If you are interested in this tool for improving your employees well-been, you can write me and we can helps you.

#employeehappiness #wellbeing #employeewellbeing #employerbrand